About

North Carolina’s Chad McCumbee will join forces with 2012 Playboy MX-5 Cup Champion Stevan McAleer to create a new racing team set to take on the 2015 MX-5 Cup by storm. Running as ModSpace Motorsports, the new team is called McCumbee McAleer Racing (MMR).

Based in McCumbee’s hometown of Supply, North Carolina, MMR features what is one of the most competitive driver pairings in North American road racing. McCumbee, 30, is a former stock car driver, with four years of NASCAR Camping World Truck and Sprint Cup Series. “Chad’s first ever sports car race was actually the same weekend as my first sports car race in the Playboy Mazda Mx5 Cup as Team mates under CJ Wilson Racing at Sebring International Raceway,” says McAleer, first-hand witness to McCumbee’s rapid transition to road racing. He has completed this with unusual success, highlighted by a sensational pole position in qualifying at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

A resident of Cold Spring, New York, McAleer (30) is a native of Glasgow, Scotland who won the 2012 MX5 Playboy Club Championship with CJ Wilson Racing in dominating fashion, and is considered by many as the best MX-5 driver in the country. The 4-time Scottish karting champion was again at the wheel of an MX-5 in 2013 and 2014. Competing in the Grand-Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Championship with CJ Wilson Racing and ModSpace Motorsports, Stevan has forged a reputation for sheer speed and precise aggressiveness.

Last year, McAleer joined McCumbee in the ModSpace Motorsports MX-5, and the combination has proven extremely competitive in the Grand Am series’ Street Tuner (ST) class, with four straight podium finishes last year at Sebring, Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca, Lime Rock Park and Watkins Glen.

The duo seems to have the chemistry to take it to the next level, and McCumbee hopes that the creation of McCumbee McAleer Racing will prove to be the right catalyst: “This is an unbelievable opportunity to be teamed with Stevan, now not only as co-drivers, but now as business partners,” he says, “As different as our career paths have been, it has created a very successful combination on the track and I see nothing but positives in our ownership roles.”

The partnership adds even more momentum to McCumbee’s road racing success with the MX-5. “Since my move from professional stock car racing into sports cars, I have always been behind the wheel of a Mazda. The chance to become a larger part of the Mazda family is a very exciting opportunity.” The excitement is shared by MX-5 veteran McAleer: “This will be a new step for Chad McCumbee and myself, starting off this new Team and the start of another journey for ModSpace Motorsports.” MMR will be ready for action this March 18th at Sebring, for the opening round of the SCCA Pro Racing Battery Tender Mazda MX-5 Cup.

Known for close, exciting and competitive racing, the SCCA Pro Racing Battery Tender Mazda MX-5 Cup pits similarly-prepared Mazda MX-5 with limited modifications allowed, on a schedule comprised of some of the most celebrated tracks in North America. MMR will carry the ModSpace banner to such storied and legendary venues as Sebring, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and Road Atlanta, among others. For more information, go to www.mx-5cup.com.